Yuyu-no-mori Nursery School and Day Nursery

Design Patterns

Traditional Classroom:

Welcoming Entry: The design of the main entrance is important for school particularly for infant children. Welcoming atmosphere in the area is essential for them. Some infant children feel sad about being away from their parents. Therefore, we tried to design inviting looking with colors and plants. There is a big cherry blossom tree which gives excitement when flowering in spring. The area is also a space for parents' waiting for picking up their children. We created a front garden with grass-covered space and greens, and benches between the main gate and entrance door so that they can wait and communicate each other.

Student Display Space: In the nursery school, children have opportunities to create crafts and draw. Those drawing can be displayed on the sliding doors between classrooms since the surface of the doors can be used as pin up boards. Sometimes, teachers use hemp strings like laundry line for posting.

Science Labs, Art Labs, and Life Skills Areas: Environmental education is essential issue for infant children. It is particularly important to offer opportunities for them to have a contact with nature to learn science, art and life skills. School grounds could be the most accessible daily outdoor environments for all children they spend, therefore, the quality of the grounds should be carefully considered. Before the construction, there were no trees but just land. So, we planted trees, shrubs and ground cover plants as much as possible: trees with flowers and fruits such as cherry blossoms, apple tree, percimon, and orange, trees with seasonal changes such as fresh green of spring, autumn colour, and trees inviting insects and wild birds such as oak trees and willows. These plants are the ones children can enjoy and discover the nature. We selected native trees in consideration with local eco-system.

Art, Music, Performance: [Big main staircase as a equipment for theater] Staircases for children is not just a equipment for going up and down but also a space for their play. Because the main staircase in the center of the building is big, the space can be used as diverse uses such as auditorium and stage. It is a wonderful thing if they could express themselves in various spaces. [Big net play feature as a equipment for darkening up] For children, watching events and performing themselves in dark spaces must be exciting experience. The central big net play feature embeds blackout curtains and we can make the bright central corridor space to dark theater space like a tent.

Physical Fitness: Early childhood is the time for developing their physical skills. Therefore, the school design should help to promote the skill but not by the way of training but through fun and play. Physical skills can be developed by various different activities such as grabbing, climbing up, jumping, running, hanging down and balancing, etc. So, diverse physical fitness (play) features should be prepared. It is also said that the school is fulfilled by physical fitness features inside and outside the building. The big play net feature in the building can help skills like jumping, sliding, balancing, and grabbing. The feature is used in any weather, and in many schools, children can get stressed because they cannot play outside freely during rainy season but it does not happen in the school. 'kids' elevator' is for children's going up and catwalk on the third floor is for their running. In the outside, there are various spaces for play in. The school design is based on 'circular play system' which promote children's play and physical activities, which have the following design theories, 1) has a circulatory function, 2) the circulation path is safe and full of variation, 3) in it there is a highly symbolic space or area, 4) within the circulation are "thrill experience" sections, 5) shortcuts can be taken, 6) there is a circular open space, or small plaza, attached, 7) the overall structure is porous. Nursery school playground's three zones, 1) playing field: soil-covered open space for active play such as play with ball and three-wheelers, 2) Slope: grass-covered slope for active play such as tag and sliding, and 3) circular corridor-type play structure: two-story wooden decks with various play features for going up and down in the symbolic towers, balancing at swinging bridge, sliding at slide and so on.

Casual Eating Areas: On the first floor, there is a lunch room for kids for the nursery school. Even though the room is not enough for all nursery school children but they have a chance to enjoy their lunch here at least once a week with different age children. During the other days, they have lunch in their classroom, however, they sometime have lunch on the deck and in the school grounds. The lunch room is also used as a space for child-support such as counselling for parents and activities for fostering local child supporters.

Transparency: Transparency is important for both children and teachers for communication and safety. Children's communication can generate through windows. In many cases, there are no windows on the door or even if it has, position of window is too high for infants. We designed position of window on the door as much as low so that children can look at what is happening at the next door. For the outdoor corridor wooden play structure, we provided some acrylic strengthened glass in the handrails so that children can enjoy observation. For the safety issue, using transparency material is efficient so that children can be watched.

Indoor-Outdoor Connection: Indoor-outdoor connection is the one of the most important design key issues in the school. Children should be able to go outside for play easily as much as possible. For realising this, the day nursery school ground is just next to the classroom on the first floor (for 0-2 years old children, even walking could take time), and nursery school ground can be approached by staircases and slide for the school children from the classroom. Semi-outdoor space is also significant to connect indoor and outdoor space. We provided a extensive semi-outdoor wooden deck space between the hall and nursery school grounds on the first floor with large canopy for enjoying outdoor wind with prevention from strong sunlight and rain.

Furniture: Soft Seating: We provided soft seating especially for their play. For example, we designed outdoor play feature for 0-1 years old children, called, cushion mountain, which is a small round play structure with soft rubber material for kids to climb up and sit on . However, the biggest soft seating in the school is the big net play feature!

Flexible Spaces: In early childhood education, flexible spaces are particularly important and there are many flexible spaces in the school. The classroom for infants aged 0-1 on the 1st floor, for children who play on the floor, is one-room space with no steps. It is also easy to divide one room into some corners by using low movable furniture. The classroom for children aged 2 is also one-room space and it faces with day nursery grounds for infants in the south and nursery school grounds for 3-5 years old children in the west. Therefore, children can see the younger or older children's play and also even play together. Spaces of nursery school classroom (3-5 years old children) on the second floor can be changed with big sliding doors depending on no of children and situation. Above the nursery school classrooms, there are lofts and catwalks for children to play in such as reading picture books and playing tag. The main staircase in the center of the building is also one of the flexible spaces. It is not just equipment for going up and down but also used for auditorium, stage and bench for chatting. The large corridor area under the net play feature on the first floor is also not just a corridor but can be used as a multi-purpose spaces such as play area and theater.

Cave Space: Cave spaces can attract small children a lot since they like to hide in small spaces for play. In this school, many cave spaces were designed inside and outside of the building, such as loft areas above the classroom, 'Kids' elevator' - staircase for children to connect the 1st and 3rd floor, corridor-type wooden play structure and outdoor symbolic towers. Although children enjoy their play in their world in the cave spaces, they should be watched for their health and safety reasons and therefore, the access to the cave spaces for teachers are secured and also the spaces can be seen from the other areas (should not be blind spots) such as use of louvers.

Daylight and Solar Energy: For the lighting planning, we used red-tinged warm lighting based on light bulb color which is tender to eyes. We also used many indirect lights in classrooms so that the lights do not enter the eyes even if children look up.

Natural Ventilation: In consideration with sustainable architecture, natural ventilation is one of the important design issues in school. In this school, in order not to use air conditioner as much as possible, allocation of opening is carefully considered for making inside airy in addition to provision of ceiling fans.

Local Signature: School design tell messages to us, which symbolise the school's policy. People who visit the school may feel, the school is fulfilled by play features and the design convey the most important school's policy - child-centred facility.

Connected to the Community: Children's facility is a very important place not only for children but also for their fathers and mothers for their communication and learning. A space under the big stair case in the main entrance area is used as a conversation room. And also, a room in the basement is wide enough for various activities and especially positively used by parents' group for meeting. There is a direct access to the outside so that parents can use the room even during out of schooltime.